LITHGOW, WILLIAM, a well
known traveller of the seventeenth century, was born in the parish of
Lanark, in the year 1583. Nothing is known of his birth or parentage, or of
the earlier period of his life. He seems to have attracted very little
general notice prior to the publication of his travels in 1614; and even the
celebrity which these acquired for him, does not appear to have suggested
any inquiry into his previous history.

There is no reason, however,
to believe otherwise than that he was a person of rather mean condition, and
poor circumstances, though evidently possessed of an education very far
surpassing what was common among the vulgar at the period when he lived. The
motives which induced him to leave his native country, to perform a painful
and dangerous pilgrimage through foreign lands, are not more obvious than
some of the other particulars of his early life. He himself, inthe
strange and almost unintelligible jargon in which he frequently indulges in
the work which records his adventures, obscurely assigns two: the oppression
of enemies,—but who they were, or what was the cause of their enmity, he
does not say—and an irresistible desire to visit strange lands. It would,
indeed, appear that this last was the ruling passion of his life, and that,
together with a roving, unsettled, and restless disposition, it was the
principal agent in compelling him to undertake the formidable journeys which
he accomplished, and enabled him to bear up with such a series of hardships
and bodily sufferings, as perhaps no man ever before or since has endured.

From the obscurity in which
his early life is involved, it is not, therefore, until he has assumed the
character which has procured him celebrity, namely, that of a traveller,
that Lithgow is introduced to us.

In his youth, while he was,
as he himself says, yet a stripling, he made two voyages to the "Orcadian
and Zetlandian Isles." Shortly after this, he proceeded on a tour through
Germany, Bohemia, Helvetia, and the Low countries. From the latter he went
to Paris, where he remained for ten months. William Lithgow nowhere gives
the slightest hint regarding the source whence he derived the funds
necessary to defray the expenses of these journeys; but there seems to be
some reason for believing that he trusted in a great measure to chance, and
to the casual assistance which he might receive from any of his countrymen
whom he might encounter, in the different places he visited. This applies
only, however, to the first part of his career; the latter was provided for
by a piece of good fortune which shall be noticed in its proper place.

On the 9th of March, 1609,
Lithgow again started from Paris on another roving expedition, and, on this
occasion, proceeded, in the first instance, directly to Rome. He was
escorted several miles on his way by three or four of his countrymen, with
whom he had picked upan acquaintance while in Paris, and who, not
improbably, supported him during the time of his residence in that city.
These persons he describes as gentlemen, and one of them, at any rate,
certainly had a claim to this character on the score of rank. This was Hay
of Smithfield, esquire, of the king of France’s body guard.

Although thus associating
himself, however, with these gentlemen, Lithgow does not speak of them as
equals, but in a marked tone of inferiority; leaving altogether an
impression that their kindness and attention proceeded from the
circumstances of his being a countryman, a man of talent, and of a singular,
bold, and adventurous disposition. Having bid adieu to his companions, he
trudged onwards to Rome on foot; for such was his usual mode of travelling.
He made it a rule, and strictly adhered to it, never to avail himself of any
conveyance during a journey when he could accomplish it on foot, and his
only deviation was in the cases of crossing seas, rivers, or lakes. During
all his travels he never mounted a horse, or put his foot into a carriage,
or any description of vehicle whatever.

While in Rome he made a
narrow escape from the inquisition; the most sanguinary and ferocious of
whose members were at that time, singular to say, Scotsmen. Two of these
were from St Andrews. There were besides, one of the name of Gordon, one
Cunningham, born in the Canongate of Edinburgh, and several others, and it
was from the eager pursuit of these, his own countrymen, that poor Lithgow
found the greatest difficulty in escaping. This, however, he effected by the
assistance of a domestic of the earl of Tyrone, who was then residing at
Rome. This man, whose name was Megget, concealed him for three days and
nights on the roof of the earl’s palace, and, on the fourth night, conveyed
him secretly out of the city, by aiding him to scale the walls, as the gates
and streets were all carefully guarded by persons appointed by the
inquisition to apprehend him.

From Rome Lithgow proceeded
to Naples, and from thence to Loretto. On his way to the latter place, he
overtook a carriage, in which were two young gentlemen from Rome with their
mistresses, all proceeding joyously on a pilgrimage to the shrine of the
Madonna. This lively group insisted upon the lonely pedestrian’s stepping
into their carriage, but, adhering to the rule he had laid down of never
availing himself of any such conveyance, he obstinately refused. Finding
that they could not prevail upon him to take a seat beside them, the
good-natured pilgrims descended from their carriage, and insisted on keeping
him company on foot, and, thus associated, the whole party jogged merrily on
for Loretto. Here he fell in with another of his countrymen, of the name of
Arthur, with whom he had been formerly acquainted, and who seems to have
been imbued with some portion of his own restless and rambling disposition.
Having spent some time in Loretto, they proceeded together to Ancona, and
thence by sea to Venice. Here his companion left him to cross the Alps,
while his own "purpose reached for Greece and Asia." Arthur, it appears, had
been a domestic servant of the earl of Glencairn. The circumstance,
therefore, of Lithgow’s making him a companion, would seem to be an
additional proof that he did not assume, or pretend to, the character of a
gentleman traveller.

Lithgow now proceeded to
visit the various islands in the Mediterranean, and thereafter wandered
through Greece and Asia, encountering innumerable dangers and difficulties;
now shipwrecked, now attacked by banditti, now plundered and maltreated,
and, with all this, frequently exposed for days and nights together to the
inclemency of the weather; his religion excluding him, in several places,
not only from the hospitality of the natives, but even from the shelter of
their houses. During his peregrinations through Greece, he met with two
gentlemen from Venice, who entertained him kindly for ten days, and, on his
departure made him a present of fifty zechins in gold; the first gift, he
says, he received in all his travels, and, it may be added, that this is
also the first allusion he makes to any pecuniary matters relating to
himself. He now proceeds to declare, that if some such instances of good
fortune had not befallen him he should never have been able to accomplish
his "sumptuous peregrination."

Not contented with the
adventures in which he was unavoidably, on his part, involved, there were
others which he sought. Like another Don Quixote, he released captives, or
at least assisted them to effect their escape, and came to the aid of
distressed damsels. Altogether, he appears to have been a singularly
benevolent and kind-hearted man; ready at all times to peril his life, for
the injured or oppressed, whenever he thought such a risk could be of
service to them.

From Greece Lithgow proceeded
over-land to Egypt, and finally reached Grand Cairo. During his journey
thither, he had the good fortune to fall in with three Dutchmen at
Jerusalem, who were journeying with a caravan in the same direction. These
he joined, and kept by them until they reached the Egyptian capital. Here
his three companions speedily killed themselves by drinking "strong Cyprus
wine without mixture of water." Each as they died left the survivors all his
property, and the last bequeathed the whole accumulated amount to Lithgow.
He had, however, some difficulty in rescuing his legacy from the grasp of
the Venetian consul; but by sacrificing a part he obtained possession of the
remainder, which amounted to nine hundred and forty-two zechins of gold,
besides rings and tablets.

Thanking God for his good
fortune, he now proceeded, quite at his ease as to money matters, to inspect
every thing that was curious in the city. From Cairo he proceeded to
Alexandria, where he embarked for Malta. From thence he sailed for Sicily,
walked afterwards to Paris, and finally came over to England, where he
presented to king James, to queen Anne, and to prince Charles, "certain rare
gifts and notable relicks brought from Jordan and Jerusalem."

After remaining in London for
about a year, Lithgow’s propensity to roving again became too strong to be
resisted, and he set out upon a second expedition. He now traversed the
Netherlands and Switzerland, and from thence proceeded to Calabria. Here
another windfall came in his way, but it was one of a much more questionable
nature in point of morality than that which met him at Cairo. Between
Saramutza and Castello France, he found the dead bodies of two young barons
lying in a field, who had just killed each other in a duel. Seeing that they
were richly clad, Lithgow, "to speak the truth," as he himself says,
searched their pockets, and found two silken purses well filled with Spanish
pistoles. These, together with certain rings which they wore on their
fingers, he carried off, and appropriated to his own use; and he thus
moralizes on the fact, "Well, in the mutability of time there is ay some
fortune falleth by accident, whether lawful or not, I will not question. It
was now mine that was last theirs; and to save the thing that was not lost,
I travelled that day thirty miles further to Terra Nova."

Lithgow now visited Africa,
traversing Barbary, Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. Then, crossing
over to Italy, he perambulated Hungary, Germany, and Poland, and finally
reached Dantzic, where he embarked for England, and once more arrived in
safety in London. He was now an object of curiosity and interest, and, while
he remained in England, was frequently admitted to familiar audiences of his
majesty, and was at all times a welcome guest at the tables of the first
nobility and gentlemen in the kingdom, where he repaid their civilities by
relating the story of his adventures.

Lithgow’s spirit of adventure
and singular restlessness of disposition, however, were still unsubdued; and
neither all that he had seen, nor all that he had suffered, could induce him
to settle at home. In 1619, he again set out on another roving expedition,
but on this occasion he was furnished with letters of recommendation from
king James, addressed to "all kings, princes, and dukes." Provided with
these documents he proceeded to Ireland. From thence he sailed for France,
travelled through Portugal and Spain, and finally arrived at Malaga. Here he
was apprehended as a spy, and accused of giving intelligence to some English
ships which were then on the Spanish coast, respecting the return of the
Plate fleet.

All poor Lithgow’s proofs and
asseverations of innocence availed him nothing. He was subjected to the most
dreadful tortures. His limbs were mangled and crushed, and his body torn and
lacerated with tightened cords and other engines of torture. His innocence
as a spy was ultimately established to the satisfaction even of his
persecutors; but he was then handed over to the Inquisition, which inflicted
upon him a fresh series of tortures not less horrible than the first.

Maimed and mutilated, Lithgow
was at length liberated by the interference of the English consul and of
several English residenters in Malaga, from whom all knowledge of the
unfortunate traveller’s fate had been carefully concealed until it was
discovered to them by accident.

Shortly after his release he
was carried on board of an English ship, for his person was so fearfully
mangled that he was not only wholly unable to walk, but was apparently
beyond hope of recovery. In this state, on his arrival in England, which was
in 1621, he was exhibited, lying on a feather bed, to the king and the whole
of the court, all the persons of whom it was composed, crowding to see him.
His miserable situation excited universal sympathy, and might under a more
spirited prince have become the ground of a national quarrel with the
country in which the cruelty and injustice had been inflicted. If his
majesty, however, failed in avenging the unhappy traveller’s injuries, he
was not wanting in compassion for his sufferings. He was twice sent to Bath
at the royal expense, and maintained by the same hand for seven and twenty
weeks, until he had in a great measure recovered his original health and
strength, "although," he says, "my left arm and crushed bones be incurable."

Soon after his arrival in
England, Lithgow was carried, by the king’s direction to the residence of
Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador at the English court, for the purpose of
endeavouring to procure some redress of his grievances. By this celebrated
person he was treated with characteristic duplicity. Lithgow, finding the
case hopeless, accused the Spaniard, in the presence chamber, and before a
crowd of courtiers, of deceit and ungentlemanlike conduct. This charge he
followed up with an act of violence on the person of the ambassador, for
which, though his spirited conduct was much applauded, he was sent to the
Marshalsea, where he was confined nine weeks. Lithgow after this made
several attempts to procure some sort of redress or compensation from the
house of commons, by a bill of grievances, but none of these were
successful. The last effort of this kind which he made was in 1626. In the
year following he returned to Scotland; and still under the influence of
that spirit which had urged him to roam through the world for so many years,
he undertook a tour through the western isles. He speaks of himself as
having been in the island of Arran in the year 1628; but from this period
little more is known regarding him. He finally, however, and probably soon
after this, returned to his native parish, where he remained till his death;
but when this took place is uncertain. He was interred in the church-yard of
Lanark, and is yet familiarly spoken of in that part of the country, where
it is said several of his descendents still exist. The place of his
sepulture is unmarked by any memorial, and cannot therefore be pointed out.

The first edition of his
travels was printed in 1614, 4to. This work was again reprinted in the reign
of Charles I., with a dedication to that monarch. He also published an
account of the siege of Buda in 1637, a circumstance which shows that he had
attained a considerable age; as in 1637, he would be in his 54th year.

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